How does AI impact game development in 2026?

For over a decade, debates about artificial intelligence in games were limited to basic enemy behavior or patrol routes. This means that a player from that period is confronted with developments that seem unrecognizable – where AI can occupy the core of the creation.

Currently, the debate about generative assistance has moved beyond technical communities and into social media, dividing players between those who celebrate the agility of new releases and those who miss the originality in modern titles. This technology has brought impressive technical advancements, but it generates ethical dilemmas that the industry is still trying to resolve amidst major controversies involving renowned studios.

Considering the importance of the topic, we at UmGamer have created this content to inform and contribute to the discussion. Check it out!

The heyday of indie games

Despite the significant negative repercussions that artificial intelligence brings when linked to game production – we’ll delve into this point shortly – it's impossible to deny that there’s a positive side.

Firstly, this new cycle brings a decrease in the barriers to entry for small developers. In 2026, a team of three people can deliver a level of visual polish and technical complexity that, in 2018, would’ve required a studio of one hundred employees.

Automation tools now handle the retopology of 3D models, the generation of ultra-high-resolution textures, and the cleaning up of complex code, allowing creative minds to focus on what really matters: the central idea and game mechanics.

Independent developers are using AI agents linked to LLMs, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, to create dynamic dialogues that react to the specific actions of each player – eliminating the static choice trees present in older RPGs. Now, if you're rude to an important character, you might be penalized later when that same NPC changes their tone of voice and withholds information they share.

An example of a released title that exemplifies this is Vaudeville. See in the video below how the technology was already functional in 2023. With constant updates to major LLMs, an AI agent is able to "act" much more faithfully to the inserted persona.

Another game that caught attention for its use of AI was Mimesis, also available on Steam. This game puts you and your friends in an area with a broken vehicle – the goal is to gather parts and resources to repair it and escape the scene. However, an artificial intelligence analyzes all your interactions, especially with your friends: it detects how you walk, talk, and act. At any moment, you or a partner can be replaced by this technology, which will pose as a friend, using your voice, and looking for an opportunity to eliminate the rest of the team.

Living worlds and breaking the repetition

Another positive change is occurring in environment creation. Procedural generation, which previously created generic and repetitive maps, has evolved into context-based generation. With the new Unreal Engine 5.7, for example, the engine understands that wind flow and sunlight can change when there’s a mountain in a scene, making the digital world more realistic.

Furthermore, AI can manage the pace invisibly. If the system detects that the user is bored, it can introduce random events or adjust the difficulty organically.

The disappearance of human touch

As we've seen, AI truly brings revolutionary technical and mechanical improvements to the industry. However, there’s a downside that many enthusiasts prefer to ignore – the excessive reliance on AI-generated assets has begun to create a generic aesthetic.

The main criticisms point out that, while some current games are technically and visually perfect, they suffer from a lack of artistic identity. When all studios use the same databases to train their creation tools, the end result becomes an average standard that avoids risks.

This issue doesn't only affect game development. There's also a broad debate on the topic in web programmer communities, where the identification of this resource during website creation is noticeable.

The matter has become so serious that it has reached giant names like Larian Studios, responsible for the acclaimed Baldur's Gate 3. CEO Swen Vincke recently confirmed that the studio uses generative AI in early stages, such as in brainstorming and mere artistic concepts.

Despite assurances that the final game content is entirely original and made by humans, the statement wasn’t well received by the community. Many fans are concerned that this practice jeopardizes the studio's handcrafted identity. However, Vincke took to social media to clarify the situation and highlighted the importance of his team of 72 artists, stating that technology is merely a support tool, similar to searching for visual references online.

The social consequences and the awards

With key creative roles under threat, the controversy surrounding the use of content generated without human input is at its peak. A striking example was the case of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at the end of last year. The Sandfall Interactive title lost important awards at the Indie Game Awards – including Game of the Year – due to its use of generative technology in the development process.

Director Guillaume Brioche explained that AI was only used temporarily to supplement some textures that hadn’t yet been manually finalized. He ultimately assured that all this material was removed and replaced with human work before release.

Even so, the award's strict policy against any use of AI in the production workflow resulted in the loss of the prize. This case shows that the public and industry organizations are demanding a level of absolute transparency, even when the impact on the final product is minimal.

The saturation of content without a real purpose

The ease of production has become a double-edged sword; despite the excellent points mentioned above, it has also brought a serious problem. The market has never been so flooded with games that are merely empty shells, using only procedural content without any narrative purpose.

These are titles that promise hundreds of hours of gameplay, but in practice, offer only repetitive tasks and circular dialogues generated by low-cost language models.

The consequence of this phenomenon is the great need for consumers to filter which games are truly worth their time and money, leading to exhaustion. On the other hand, stores struggle to combat the spam of titles that aim only for quick profits, taking advantage of artificially created flashy visuals to deceive unsuspecting players.

Human curation, both by specialized critics and the sales platforms themselves, has become more necessary than ever to separate true works of art from merely algorithmic products. The oversupply ends up suffocating games that truly have something new to say.

Artificial intelligence in game development is an immeasurably powerful tool that has expanded the horizons of what we believed to be possible in terms of interactivity – and games like Vaudeville and Mimesis prove it. It allows small companies to create vast worlds and large studios to optimize processes that were previously arduous.

However, it's an advancement that demands vigilance; the cases of studios like Larian and Sandfall show how the public and the press are attentive to the line between assistance and replacement. Long-term success will require companies to treat technology as a technical ally, without ever abandoning the human talent that defines the true essence of the gaming industry.

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